The invention relates to presenting ticker information, and more particularly, to presenting information received over a packet-based network as a ticker.
With improvements in communications technology, a wide variety of mechanisms for providing information to users exist. Examples include electronic mail, viewing of web pages provided over the Internet, and broadcast of television programming. Scrolling tickers may be presented in television programming and web pages, most commonly for continuously updated information such as stock prices and sports scores. By providing continuous scrolling of information, the user may keep up to date with the latest changes in the presented information. Thus, while the user is performing some other task, he or she may occasionally peek at the scrolling ticker to track updated information that is of interest.
Typically, however, the information presented is controlled by the broadcaster or provider of the information. The information provider determines the timing and content of the ticker information. The user does not have the ability to control the information presented, except to turn on or off the ticker feature on the display (e.g., TV screen, web page, and so forth). For example, to view sports scores, a ticker would typically include the scores of all teams in a league (not just the teams of interest to the user). To view stock price updates, a ticker would include the prices of all stocks on one or more stock exchanges. The user is thus presented with a relatively larger volume of information, much of which may not be of interest.
As a result, to find out about a particular piece of information, a user may have to wait until the ticker scrolls to the item of interest, which may take a relatively long time period. For example, if a user is interested in the stock price of a given company or the sports score of a given team, he or she often must wait for updates of other stocks or sports scores to pass by.
A need thus exists for an improved method and apparatus of presenting information to a user.
In general, according to one embodiment, a method of communicating information over a network includes requesting selected information to be received from an information provider system and receiving the selected information over the network. The selected information is then displayed as a ticker on a user device.
Some embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the following advantages. By presenting selected information as a ticker, the receiving user is presented with information updated on some predetermined basis (e.g., continuously, periodically, or at other selected intervals). Also, the ability to select information that is received as a ticker allows a user to filter out unwanted information. This reduces the amount of data presented so the user can focus on the selected information.